Household surfaces, such as tables and countertops, are often cleaned using scouring pads and sponges that help loosen and remove grime and stains. Particularly, scouring pads are used to remove tough stains and build-up, and a sponge is used thereafter to clean up and soak the broken up stains and liquids on the surface. The scouring pad and sponge are typically used in combination, requiring a user to constantly switch between both the scouring pad and sponge. Using and retrieving multiple scouring pads and sponges can be inconvenient and time consuming.
Typically, harsh detergents and other chemicals are used when cleaning surfaces with tough, built-up stains. Waterproofed gloves and mittens have been used to protect a user's hands from harsh detergents and other chemicals necessary in most cleaning operations that require the scouring pad and sponge. It is helpful in numerous applications to use water-tight gloves of rubber, plastic or other polymers. These are commonly seen in kitchen and bathroom use, however, the actual applications extend considerably beyond ordinary household usage. In particular, commercial and industrial applications are far too numerous to list but include any type of situation in which toxic, hazardous, abrasive, or corrosive materials must be handled. In addition, numerous industries require use of such items for protection of workers from unsanitary substances, toxic or hazardous materials and so on during the construction of a wide variety of different materials, supplies and end products.
In some instances, abrasive cleaning surfaces have been attached to certain gloves or mittens, including gloves or mittens which are waterproof. These abrasives, or cleaning surfaces, have been attached to the gloves adjacent to or at the palm area and fingertip of the particular glove. The prior art in this respect is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 2,459,521 to Woodbury; U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,386 to Grizyll; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,787 to Bianchi; as well as French Pat. No. 2,278,277 to Scott.
The above and other art relates only to the attachment of the abrasive or cleaning material to the palm area and fingertip. The problem encountered therein is the palm of the user is soft and, therefore, is not as effective for the cleaning of difficult surfaces as is a scouring stone or other material having a rigid abrading surface. Further, in that the area of the palm is relatively large, the pounds per square inch that may be applied therefrom, to the working surface, is relatively small.
A shortcoming in prior art cleaning gloves has been the lack of physical flexibility, their incapacity to act as a sponge in order to accomplish the absorption and retention of detergents in solution, and the single cleaning purpose thereof, i.e., particularity of the cleaning surface for which a given cleaning abrasive glove may be used. Thus, there is a need for a cleaning glove that has both a scouring surface and an absorbent sponge.